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How to...
Building your case for  the boardWhy is this resourcenecessary?Who are the boardand what do theywant?Ideas and resources to help you make adifference
Anyone who needs to convince or influence their board about the importanceand efficacy of an arts organisation developing digitally.
Who is this How To… guide for?
Help Your Board Get Digital
Why is this resource necessary?
ICT is just a tool - the plumbing of an organisation. Should it even be discussedby the board?Many arts organisations’ boards see IT and digital development as somethingthat should happen behind the scenes, a tool that should just be working tomake sure that essential things happen - like finances and internalcommunications.Last November, research was undertaken with the boards of 5 national artscompanies in Scotland
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. The research found that 78% of their board membersdefined themselves as digital migrants, and 70% had never downloaded orwatched video content from the internet. The 22% digital native board membersconversely felt that they had little knowledge of technology/digitaldevelopments. Although only a small sample, this together with what I knowanecdotally about boards means I think they often need help in “getting digital”.“Company boards don’t recognise what IT is or what it does anymore. It used to be a thingthat you used to increase productivity or automate processes, but that’s been done. Even Chief Information Officers, who thoroughly understand enterprise IT, have been left behind by socialIT - which they can’t control. Today’s technology is about communities.”
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He’s saying that the tools have escaped the toolbox! Every business is now digital: even the hairdresser onthe high street is a digital business because their clients talk about their experiences of their haircuts online
Oct 09
How to... Help Your Board Get Digital
via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Culture sector customers are online and are talkingabout culture and cultural organisations. That information is readily available and accessible anywhere andeverywhere. We can’t control the message anymore! This means fundamental changes to businessmodels. Because of social technologies, the channel to market for our product (art, events) is different,feedback loops and expectations are different. It will not pay to have a simplistic view of digitaldevelopment. Successful organisations today need to operate in a refined and subtle way, and this meansthat digital needs to be part of an organisation’s overall business strategy. That means boards need to havea really good grasp of digital. And if you’re the organisation’s digital champion, or digital native, then it mayfall to you to influence this.Many businesses still misunderstand IT. But look at this quote from Steve Prentice of Gartner, the ITConsultancy:
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Research undertaken by Hannah Rudman on behalf of Mission Models Money with the 5 national Scottish performing arts companies.http:www.missionmodelsmoney.org
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How to...
Help Your Board Get Digital
Oct 09
How to... Help Your Board Get Digital
Building your case for  the boardWhy is this resourcenecessary?Who are the boardand what do theywant?Ideas and resources to help you make adifference1234
Plan B is to hang in there and hope that the economic situation gets so dire thatthe board has no alternative but to explore how digital can save the business.On the basis that “hope is not a strategy”, then making sure your organizations“gets IT” now seems to make most sense.So: be bold and challenge the board on their poor IT/digital governance!A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointlyoversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has adifferent name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board. It is often simply referred to as “the board.” Theboard is responsible for governing an organization: governance is about ensur-ing an organisation’s sustainability and resilience. Therefore, even if the board has no digital natives in theteam, board members will be interested when digital can positively impact the general areas/drivers of governance:
Economics
Can investment in IT or digital development create new revenue streams; new products; and new custom-ers; new channels to market? Ludus Dance, a dance-in-education company based in Lancaster, beganonline booking for their dance classes. Because customers could see what they were going to experiencebefore they bought, and because buying was made simple through an online transaction customers couldmake at home or work, Ludus were able to increase their revenue, and grow their audience. See the LudusDance case study on getambition.comand read the How To…make money out of digital developments guide.
Operations
Can investment in IT or digital development create cost efficiencies or cost avoidances? Computerisingsome operational tasks takes routine administration work away from staff, allowing them to concentrate onactivity that enhances the product/customer service/increases audiences. For instance, when New WolseyTheatre implemented a Customer Relationship Management System together with a new content manage-ment system driven website, much previously manual content and customer data upload was done au-tomatically, being driven by the new online box office system. This freed up the box office manager’s timefrom the routine tasks of uploading content to multiple systems; and provided him with detailed figures foreach night’s attendance. Better Management Information allowed him to focus on marketing events thatwere selling less well, and he found he had the time to create new rich media video content (interviews withactors and directors) which in turn attracted new younger audiences to the theatre. Investing in better morejoined up systems can also save staff time and money.
Who are the board, and what do they want?
 
How to...
 
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How to...
Building your case for  the boardWhy is this resourcenecessary?Who are the boardand what do theywant?Ideas and resources to help you make adifference
Dada used funding from AmbITion to standardise their software. Most staff hadspecialist software for accessibility purposes, which was hard to supportinternally, so a lot of money was spent on external ICT support. Standardisingsoftwares whilst still ensuring accessibility reduced the maintenancerequirements and freed up staff time to concentrate on audience development.See the New Wolsey Theatre and Dada AmbITion case studies for more details.
Compliance
Can IT or digital developments help your organisation comply to legislation orcompliance eg. local government legislation on accessibility to your content/funders’ regulations on cultural entitlement?
CSR/mission of the organization as defined in the company’smemorandum and articles/ express terms of the charity
Help Your Board Get Digital
Oct 09
How to... Help Your Board Get Digital
Can IT or digital developments help your organization offer more cultural/educational/volunteer/participative opportunities?Can IT or digital developments help your organization with Corporate Social Responsibility – perhaps bybecoming greener through the use of smart and efficient technology? (Examples of greener workingpractices in relation to ICT can be found atEnvirodigital’swebsite).
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Considering your organisation’s board’s focus and responsibilities, as outlined above, as you put yourproposal for digital development to them together will help you build a strong case. Your proposal shouldinclude the following:
•Outlinewhattheideais,howyouwanttochangethestructure,andwhatthecostand
impact will be. Outline what the benefits and Return On Investment (ROI) will be. 
•Createabenchmark,measuringwhereyouatnow,andthinkaboutwhattoolsyou
will use to measure improvements in the future. Will you measure social media? Just your website? How? Google analytics? AmbITion has a great How To… resourceon measuring your online impact.
•Outlinehowyouwillimplementthechange,thinkingabouthowtheimplementation
 will change the behaviour of the staff, the organization and the audience.AmbITion has a great resource about How To…Implement digital developments – use it to help create yourplan.You may also want to create a Technology Plan for the board – see the Creative & Cultural Skills resourceon AmbITion’s website.
Building your case for the board
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